Chapter 83 is nothing short of a calamity!
Chu Jichen's gaze grew increasingly cold and sharp: "I... came for you..."
After he finished speaking, he seemed to remember something: "No, that's not right. I came here for the General Who Conquers the West!"
He reached out his hand, and the guard behind him immediately handed him a scroll of bright yellow imperial edict.
Chu Jichen lowered his eyes: "Although General Zhengxi died in battle, he made great contributions. When His Majesty heard that General Zhengxi was not dead, he immediately wrote an imperial edict to reward him."
"I happened to be in the palace earlier, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to deliver an imperial edict to the General Who Conquers the West."
"But who would have thought that this General Who Conquers the West was actually an imposter, the Marquis and your men."
"Marquis Yongning! You impersonated a court official and deceived the Emperor. What is your punishment?"
Huo Yunzhan's eyes widened as he stared at the imperial edict, somewhat incredulous: "No, it's impossible."
The person who impersonated him did mention to him when he returned from the palace that His Majesty intended to bestow honors upon the real Huo Yunzhan.
But wasn't he rejected by Prime Minister Liu with some excuse and pretext back then?
How could this be? There's even an imperial edict of reward?
Chu Jichen handed the imperial edict to the attendant behind him, who quickly stepped forward and handed it to Huo Yunzhan: "My lord, the imperial edict."
The attendant lowered his eyes: "My lord, please come with us."
Old Madam Huo quickly grabbed Huo Yunzhan: "The imperial edict was for Yunzhan, don't you admit it..."
"Shut up!" Huo Yunzhan's expression changed instantly. Of course, he knew what Old Madam Huo wanted to say. She thought that since the imperial decree of reward was for Huo Yunzhan, it would be enough for him to admit that he was Huo Yunzhan.
"Mother, don't be foolish! I am Huo Yunting!"
He absolutely cannot admit that he is Huo Yunzhan's; otherwise, from the moment he returned as Huo Yunting after Huo Yunzhan's death, he would have already committed the heinous crime of deceiving the emperor!
His attempt to fake his death and escape failed; now, he can only be Huo Yunting.
Furthermore, if he were Huo Yunting, Prime Minister Liu might still be able to come to his rescue.
But if he were Huo Yunzhan, Prime Minister Liu would certainly not care about him.
In addition... he still has some leverage.
Thinking of this, Huo Yunzhan's expression calmed down a bit: "Alright, I'll go with the prince."
"But I still maintain that I resorted to this desperate measure only to coax my younger brother and sister-in-law back home; I had no other intentions."
"Your Highness, please take me to see His Majesty. I will explain things directly to him."
Coax her? Coax her back home?
Shen Qingci was almost amused by Huo Yunzhan's shamelessness.
In front of so many people, they are still distorting the truth and calling lies a hoax.
Chu Jichen glanced at Huo Yunzhan, his eyes filled with complex emotions, and simply raised his hand to let the servant push him away.
Seeing Huo Yunzhan walk away with Chu Jichen, Old Madam Huo couldn't help but get angry: "Shen Qingci! You jinx! It's all your fault!"
"You're a jinx, bringing bad luck to your father, mother, husband, and children! Anyone close to you will suffer a terrible end!"
"Yun Ting is only doing this to coax you back! If anything happens to Yun Ting because of this, I won't let you off the hook!"
Shen Qingci's heart trembled violently. After a moment of silence, she suddenly laughed: "Yes, I am a jinx. I bring bad luck to my father, mother, husband, and children! That's why I asked to leave the manor after Yun Zhan's accident."
"I'm doing this... just so I won't bring trouble to you."
"I've already left, shouldn't you be happy? Shouldn't you be relieved? Why did you still try to trick me into coming back?"
She tilted her head, her eyes sharp and piercing: "Could it be that you have some ulterior motive?"
"Otherwise, I really can't figure out why you would go to such lengths to trick me into returning to the Huo residence."
Old Madam Huo's heart trembled. Why would this vile woman suddenly say or think such things?
Did she really know something?
Shen Qingci naturally did not miss the sudden guilty look in Old Madam Huo's eyes, which began to wander around.
Shen Qingci's eyebrows curved into a smile: "Why does the old lady seem so guilty? Did I really guess right?"
"Then let me guess again. I am an orphan. You went to great lengths to trick me into returning to the Huo family. Surely it wasn't for the small dowry I have?"
"Although the Marquis mentioned wanting to inherit both families before, I have been married before, been pregnant, and had a miscarriage. Even if I am quite pretty, I am not at the point where the Marquis should gamble his future, am I?"
"What else could it be for?"
Her fingers twitched slightly: "I guess it's related to our Shen family. What did the old lady say? Am I right?"
Old Madam Huo was shocked. She gripped her cane tighter and tighter. She moved the cane and gritted her teeth. She absolutely could not reveal anything unusual. Shen Qingci had also said that she was just guessing.
Since it was just a guess, Shen Qingci couldn't be sure unless she showed any unusual behavior.
"What nonsense are you spouting? What do you mean it has to do with the Shen family? Your whole family is dead, what could they possibly do?"
"You're absolutely insane, completely unreasonable! I'm not going to talk to you anymore. Let's go back to the manor!"
Madam Huo turned and left, her steps quick.
Liu Ruolan, who hadn't spoken until now, raised her eyes and gave Shen Qingci a deep look before leaving.
Seeing that there was no more interesting show to watch, the crowd gradually dispersed.
Shen Qingci turned around and led Wanqing back to the courtyard. Once the courtyard gate was closed, Wanqing stomped her foot and said, "This family is absolutely disgusting!"
"This is utterly a distortion of the truth! Shameless!"
"Fortunately, the Prince was here, otherwise, who knows what other disgusting things Huo Yunzhan would have said."
Shen Qingci nodded without saying a word, while Wan Qing muttered, "Fortunately, we've achieved more than half of our goal."
"At least, in front of so many people, he exposed the fake marquis's disguise, making it impossible for Huo Yunzhan to restore his true identity."
"This servant thinks that Huo Yunzhan definitely wants to have someone disguise themselves as Huo Yunting first, so that he and Huo Yunting can appear at the same time to dispel the previous rumors."
"Then, once everyone stopped suspecting him, he immediately had the fake Huo Yunting either die or disappear completely."
"By then, since the twins have already appeared, there's no longer any possibility that he switched identities with Huo Yunzhan and appeared in Huo Yunzhan's place because his reputation was ruined and everyone knew he couldn't have children."
"That must be it!"
Wanqing muttered to herself for a while before realizing that Shen Qingci was unusually quiet, having not uttered a single word since returning to the courtyard.
She cautiously glanced at Shen Qingci and saw that Shen Qingci had her brows furrowed and looked preoccupied.
"Miss..." Wanqing quickly asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"
Shen Qingci paused, her eyes somewhat blank. After a long while, she finally spoke: "Tell me, am I really an unlucky person? My parents, my elder brother... were they really killed because of me?"
Is it true that everyone I'm close to will become unhappy?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com